WISENET Journal 35, July 1994, p. 9.
I was born in 1946 in Sydney and was selected for "OC" (Opportunity Class) for the last two years of primary school. I then attended St. George Girls' High School which, like the "OC" in primary school, was part of the State organised system of streamlining for academic ability. Some of the girls at this High School were absolutely brilliant and several topped the State in different subjects for our final exams. I used to compete like crazy against these girls but could never achieve their marks. This was doubly frustrating because everything was so easy to them. I concentrated on the Science subjects, Mathematics I and II, Physics and Chemistry and always planned to be an industrial or research chemist. But in the first year of my BSc degree at the University of N.S.W. I was exposed to Biology for the first time. This opened my eyes to a whole new world, and while I continued with Chemistry, I included Biochemistry and Physiology, eventually doing Honours in Physiology.
For my PhD I travelled to Melbourne, which was then the centre for biological research in Australia. I did post-docs in Melbourne, London and the U.S.A., returning to Melbourne in 1978 to head the Cell Biology Laboratory at the Baker Medical Research Institute, where I worked until mid-1991. For many years my research had focused on the cell biology of vascular diseases, and for this I achieved an international reputation and had risen to the position of Principal Research Fellow of the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NH&MRC). The move to the University of Queensland in Brisbane occurred because my husband accepted the Chair of Anatomical Sciences at this University. I therefore had to set up all new laboratories and to acquire suitable staff and students all over again. This took more than a year of frustration before my laboratories became the Centre for Research in Vascular Biology. As Director I employ three PostDoctoral Research Fellows, six Research Assistants and one Clerical Assistant, all from external grants for which I am the Senior Chief Investigator. I jointly supervise ten post-graduate students.
I am the Founding President of the Australian Vascular Biology Society and Past-President of the Australian Atherosclerosis Society. I am Secretary of the National Association of Research Fellows of the NH&MRC, and a member of NH&MIRC regional grant interview committees and assigner's panels. I am on several University Committees and give some lectures to undergraduates. I have published more than 140 papers in international scientific journals and two books.
In spite of all this hard work I have retained my enthusiasm and am often at my desk by 6am. This is partially due to having one son who is a rower and who must be at the shed before 5.45am! I have two other children (all are at high school), one dog, two horses, ten mice and two goldfish. Life is very busy, but I still find time to take on new tasks. I am invited to speak at overseas conferences four or five times a year. These I enjoy thoroughly but am always pleased to get home again.
I went to the 25th Anniversary of my Higher School Certificate Class in Sydney in 1988 and was shocked and disappointed that none of the truly brilliant girls who were my classmates had done much with their lives. They were (are) much cleverer than I, but for various reasons settled for easy and rather mundane careers, if any career at all! Why was this? Some of it was pressure from husbands/boyfriends not as smart as they, but a lot was due to a lack of fire in the belly, of driving ambition - not necessarily for personal status, but to achieve, to persist, to do the best of one's ability. The importance of this has been expressed by Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States from 1923 to 1929:
"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful (wo)men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent!"
This is particularly true for women in science. If you are prepared to commit yourself, to persist, then you will succeed.